And a strong angel took up a stone, as a great millstone, and cast [it] into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall Babylon the great city be cast down, and shall be found no more at all;
A mighty angel ends the account of Babylon with an action, not a speech. He drops a stone like a great millstone into the sea. The picture raises three questions: who is this city, why is her end violent, and why is it final?
The gesture is not new. Commentators trace it back to Jeremiah.
Here we have a symbolic action describing Babylon's destruction... So it was with ancient Babylon. Jeremiah "wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon." He directed Seraiah, who went with Zedekiah to Babylon in the fourth year of that king's reign, to read the book in full view of Babylon's wealth and splendour. Seraiah was then to tie a stone to the book and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates, saying as he did so, "Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her." (Jer. 51:60-64.) The meaning of the action is therefore the same in both cases: it signified violent, complete, final, and irreversible destruction.
One difference stands out. In Jeremiah a man carried the sign; here a mighty angel does. The end is the same for both: sudden destruction by force.
The object chosen carries its own message. A millstone grinds, and Babylon had been doing the grinding.
In Revelation 18:21 the symbol used by the Old Testament prophet is taken up again in the New. The millstone pictures Babylon herself as the hard and merciless grinder of God's wheat.
Babylon once sat on many waters, which stand for the nations. The sea that takes the stone turns that picture inside out.
As a sign of the awesome finality of the judgment, a mighty angel takes a stone like a great millstone and casts it into the sea (v. 21). He announces that Babylon too will fall by violence, and nothing of her will remain. She will no longer sit on the waters (the nations); they will swallow her up completely. This whole vivid picture of her ruin should strike the conscience of anyone who would dare to trade the truth of God's Word for profit.
The next verses spell that out in daily terms: no music, no craftsman, no mill, no lamp, no wedding.
Verses 22 and 23 then give a beautiful, moving and poetic picture of her utter desolation. How complete the ruin! Joyless, dark, and silent, Babylon stands as a monument to the full vengeance of God. Wickedness had sat enthroned in the middle of what claimed to bear the Name of Christ. But at last she filled her cup of sin to the brim. Then God rises in His fierce anger, His indignation burns, and Babylon falls to rise no more. Her destruction cannot be undone.
The chapter does not leave the sentence unexplained. Two charges close it, and one weighs heavier than the other.
The reason for her judgment comes at the close; not only "by your sorcery all the nations were deceived," but above all "in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who were slain on the earth."
One writer counts the charges against her.
Put together the grounds of Babylon's judgment and you see that they are four — "idolatry, corruption, worldliness, and persecution." God had borne long with this wicked system, which had profaned His name and falsified His truth. But now His mighty hand has come down on it, taking vengeance for all the sins that had filled the earth with defilement and corruption.
The stone goes down so that someone else can appear. Babylon had taken the place of the true bride.
Now it is plain that as long as Babylon remained unjudged, the true bride could not be brought out and displayed in her beauty and coronation robes. She is hidden in heaven until the usurper on earth is destroyed and removed from sight. The prostitute and the bride cannot exist side by side.
One writer sets it beside an earlier acted sign, the prophet's visit to the potter's house.
But Revelation 18 is another acted sign. Like the prophet's action in the potter's house, it teaches the unfaithful one that the fate of the broken vessels, or of the millstone cast into the sea, awaits her. This is for our learning. God never approves disobedience.
- Sign — The millstone repeats Jeremiah's stone, sunk in the Euphrates. It stands for ruin that is violent, complete, final and beyond repair.
- Symbol — The millstone pictures Babylon herself: the hard, merciless grinder of God's wheat, now ground down in turn.
- Sea — She had sat on the waters, the nations; she is swallowed by them, with no trace of existence left.
- Silence — Music, craft, mill, lamp and wedding all stop. Joyless, dark and silent, she stands as a monument to God's vengeance. The charges are four: idolatry, corruption, worldliness and persecution, and above all the blood of prophets and saints.
- Space — Her fall clears the stage. The prostitute and the bride cannot exist side by side, so the true bride appears only when the usurper is gone.
and voice of harp-singers and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters shall not be heard any more at all in thee, and no artificer of any art shall be found any more at all in thee, and voice of millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee,
A mighty angel has just thrown a millstone into the sea. The vision turns from the crash to the silence that follows. Music, workshops and mills all stop in a great city, and never start again. Why does God mark His judgment by sounds that end, rather than by fire?
The list goes far past lost trade. One writer shows how much of ordinary life falls silent.
Then comes the most extreme announcement of her desolation. Her merchandise will not merely be gone; there will be no sign of life at all — no pleasant sound, no craftsman's work, no lowly work, no lamplight, no voice of bridegroom or of bride.
The angel's sign repeats an older one. One writer traces it back to Jeremiah, who sent a scroll into the Euphrates with a stone tied to it.
Jeremiah "wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon." He told Seraiah to read the book out loud in front of Babylon, while all her wealth and splendour were still on show. Then he was to tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates. As he did so, he was to say, "Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her." (Jer. 51:60-64.) The meaning of the action is the same in both cases. It stood for violent, complete, final and irreversible destruction. Neither city was ever to rise again. So this chapter solemnly declares that from now on all music, all mechanical activity and the sound of millstones will be silenced for ever.
This city is more than a place on a map. Commentators describe her as a system that claimed the Name of Christ while wickedness ruled inside it. Her silence becomes her monument.
How complete the ruin! Joyless, dark, and silent, Babylon stands out as a monument of the utmost vengeance of God. Wickedness had sat enthroned in something that claimed to bear the Name of Christ. But at last she filled her cup of sin to the full. Then God rises in His fierce anger, His indignation burns, and Babylon falls to rise no more. Her destruction cannot be undone.
Each sound stands for a whole department of human life. Together they cover art, work, learning and pleasure — the things that won this system its great name.
It has had a great name among people for its music, arts and crafts. Builders raised and decorated its cathedrals with the most expensive materials and the finest human skill. Yet of her the verse says, "the sound of harpists and musicians … and a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more." The industrial system of Christendom is pictured in the sound of the mill, and its educational and philosophical systems in the light of the lamp. Its pleasures appear in the highest joy of the voice of the bridegroom and bride. All of it will pass for ever in the judgment of God.
The silencing of the harps is not a verdict on music itself. One writer draws a line between music God has owned and music that charms the heart away from Him.
The musical world that began with Jubal is not forgotten, for "the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more." God was pleased to have David's music in the temple worship, and He will have music from Israel on earth again. But the music of man's world charms his heart away from God, and it is marked out for judgment.
The verse names craftsmen as well as singers. One writer lists the trades this touches, right down to the flour mills.
There will be no employment left for the unsaved promoters of so-called Christian music (v. 22), for real Christian musicians will have been taken away at the Rapture… Further, craftsmen of every description — artists, sculptors, cabinet makers, stone masons, tile setters, etc. will share this total desolation. Even the flour mills will be silent.
- Sign — The millstone in the sea repeats Jeremiah's sunken scroll. The fall is violent, complete, final and beyond repair.
- Silence — God marks this judgment by sounds that stop: harp, workshop, mill, lamp, wedding.
- Scope — Music, crafts, industry, learning and pleasure all fall together. No department of the system survives.
- Sentence — What falls wore the Name of Christ while wickedness sat enthroned inside it. It falls to rise no more.
- Separation — Music itself is not condemned; God owned David's music and will have music again. What ends is music that charms the heart away from Him.